May 23, 2012 - Finding New Roads

Gypsy Stats:
3 hours 3 minutes Elapsed Time
2 hours 41 minutes Riding Time
98.6 miles
36.6 mph

Beemer Stats;
105 miles
39 mph
48 mpg

This Wednesday dawned clear and bright with warm temperatures and plenty of sun.  There was work to do in the garden, of course, but somehow, this day just had "motorcycle" written all over it.

A Beautiful Spring Day in Pennsylvania

Rt 337 Opens Up the View of Blue Mountain

Last week, the ride over second ridge on New Philadelphia Road made me realize that riding the Valley and Ridge Province is all about going over the ridges, then connecting the roads in the valleys.  The roads across the ridges tend to run in the gaps - water gap if there is still a river and it is cut down to river level, wind gap if it is no longer the site of a present day river but cut by a river in the geologic past.  Delaware Water Gap is the quintessential water gap and growing up in the eastern Lehigh Valley, "water gap" meant "Delaware Water Gap".  Similarly, Wind Gap, where Rt 33 crosses Blue Mountain, was the quintessential wind gap.  It is easy to see why they are so exemplary if you view them from anywhere on South Mountain (for example traveling on Rt I 78 East) in the Lehigh Valley.

We tend to know the ridge crossing by the gap name:  Rt 611 thru Water Gap, Rt 191 over Fox Gap, Rt 33 thru Wind Gap, Rt 74 over Waggoners Gap, etc.  But it occurred to me that to fully appreciate the V&R, we should learn all of the ridge crossings.

The Pinnacle from Pine Creek Valley

To the east of us, Rt 309 is the major route crossing Blue Mountain.  To the west, Rt 61 cuts thru Schuylkill Gap at Port Clinton.  In between, Hawk Mountain Road crosses the folded ridge running east to west over Hawk Mountain.  We also know Gun Club Road which climbs the south side of the ridge and Y's into 309 near the top.  Are there any other crossings?

The pannable, zoomable, map-of-maps on the iPad shows one:  east of Hawk Mountain, Blue Mountain House Road crosses the ridge connecting Mountain Rd on the South and Blue Mountain Drive on the north.  Nothing to do but go take a look.

Would have been faster if not behind this guy

I started out with a zig-zag over the Blue Hills just for fun, then accessed the stretch of Mountain Rd by heading up Rt 337 out of Kutztown, across Stoney Run to Hawk Mountain Rd, turning onto New Bethel Church Rd, then Kirst Hill Rd.  Mountain Rd runs along the south side of Blue Mountain for a long way through our neck of the woods.  It affords a great, gray-road, east-west route from nearly every ridge crossing to the next.  I had never been on this stretch of Mountain Rd before and probably would have enjoyed it more if I had not fallen in behind a very slowly moving Yellow Freight van.

The junction with Blue Mountain House Rd was in Steinsville.  The first thing of interest was the "No Winter Maintenance" sign; the second was the end-of-pavement.  Well, it would have been better on a GS, but the stone appeared to be well graded and firmly packed and accessible to a street bike if ridden carefully, so I pressed on.  The going over the mountain was slow and careful, but I never heard banjos.

End-of-Pavement on Blue Mountain House Road

The road became Fort Franklin Rd on the north side of the ridge.  I came out the other side at Blue Mountain Drive, very close to the point where it runs into Rt 309.  Left on Blue Mountain Drive to Pine Valley Rd turned out to be a great gray-road alternative to Rt 895 for running Summer Valley which lies between first and second ridge.  It wound up dumping me into New Ringgolds on Railroad Avenue at the junction of Rt 895 and Rt 443.

Time for a pit stop.  And ominous clouds announced the possibility of thunder showers, so I added back the jacket liner (I had been running suit, no liners, over short LD comfort base layer in the high 70's/low 80's temps) and stowed the handlebar camera in the tank bag under cover.

Back to Paved Road

Sure enough, Rt 895 from New Ringgolds to Hawk Mountain Rd was wet, with road spray from the big trucks, but no actual rain.  By Hawk Mountain Rd, my return route over Blue Mountain, I was back on dry roads.

Well, time to get back to those chores the quickest way, but running Rt 143 from Lenhartsville to Moselem Springs (the quickest route home) is no slouch of a ride.  Great half day of hooky and a new road discovered.

Phlox Blooming by the Roadside